And A New Christmas Tradition Was Born

Today's adventure took us to The Yankee Candle Co. in South Deerfield, MA. Yes, they have all the candles you could ever want but even better they have all these little Christmas villages, kitchen and country stores and so much more!

Our first stop was to see Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Unlike Santa at the mall (who we saw yesterday.) Mr. Claus at Yankee Candle was so JOLLY! He sat in his work shop surrounded by toys and letters from all the little children. He even had a real beard! He spent 5 mins. or more talking to each child and you could take all the pictures you wanted.

Aubrie did so great! Here are a few pictures we took today with Santa.

Here I am trying to get her to smile for Santa.

After Santa we stopped for some hot chocolate at Mrs. Claus Cafe and to feed Aubrie. That is about the time that I decided that this has to become a Christmas tradition. Anytime we come up to NH for Christmas we have to go to Yankee Candle, get our picture taken with Santa and pick out our ornaments for the year.

I was very excited to have found Gil's ornament. I try to have each ornament represent something from the past year. I really wanted to find an ornament that would represent Gil in Afghanistan over Christmas. I was lucky enough to find a guy dressed in full cami's, helmet, vest, gun and all. We had it personalized with "2010 Afghanistan." I also found a cute stocking stuffer for Aubrie and Kai.

After our hot chocolate break we strolled through the "Black Forest" it began to snow...or we waited the 4 minutes like the sign said ("Snow's every 4 minutes") to see it. Either way it was really pretty and Aubrie just stared at it as it fell on her.

We found these great big bears in the forest and couldn't resist taking a picture with them. They are so big compared to Aubrie...or even me for that matter.
We had so much fun walking through all the shops that just oozed Christmas.

On another happy note, Aubrie was awake almost all day, so I think...or hope that she will sleep really well tonight.

After Yankee Candle we decided to stop at a candy store that we saw on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate - Nutty Episode" Alex Guarnaschelli said that the dark chocolate dixies at Richardson' Candy Kitchen was the best nutty thing she had ever had. Now, I watch this show regularly and have been waiting for the day to be able to actually go and try one of their favorites so, I was really excited to find out that this candy shop was right down the road from Yankee Candle. I always wondered if the things they chose were really that great. Well we just had a dark chocolate dixie after dinner and I have to say, they really are that great! So if you live in the area stop by and if you don't you can order them online!

Our next Christmas activity is finally buying our tree (tomorrow) and building a gingerbread house. As soon as I find a kit like this one...

It must be a no-bake kit...last time I tried to bake one myself it was a disaster. This year I want it to be enjoyable and we all know that the fun part is decorating it, not baking it!

Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season!